ANALYSIS: Raytheon hits

milestone for missile that

changed air warfare
06 FEBRUARY, 2017 | SOURCE: FLIGHTGLOBAL.COM | BY: STEPHEN TRIMBLE | WASHINGTON DC

Raytheon will deliver the 20,000thcopy of the missile that three decades
ago changed air-to-air combat in a 31 January ceremony inside the
company’s factory in the desert on the outskirts of Tucson, Arizona.

It is not quite the end of the road for the AIM-120 AMRAAM. Several
thousand more of the radar-guided weapons will be delivered to the US
Air Force until the programme of record expires in 2024, with deliveries
of hundreds likely to continue to foreign operators well into the distant
future.

The milestone speaks to the AIM-120 platform’s unusual longevity,

spanning three generations of fighters. The AMRAAM was conceived
in an era of aerial combat highlighted by Vought F-8s and McDonnell
Douglas F-4s, came into service to support a fleet of Boeing F-15s,
F/A-18s and Lockheed Martin F-16s and remains the most important
offensive weapon for US pilots now climbing into Lockheed F-22s and
F-35s.

It has existed for so long the missile has outlived its acronym. Though
introduced as a medium-range air-to-air weapon, the AIM-120D that
entered service two years ago reportedly extends the AMRAAM’s
reach to nearly the range of the retired, long-range AIM-54 Phoenix,
whose maximum reach is officially described as in “excess of 100nm
[185km]” by the US Navy.
The AIM-120 was designed to change air combat based on painful
lessons from the Vietnam War. The original Hughes missile designers
introduced a radar-guided missile with autonomous targeting, allowing
fighter pilots for the first time to simultaneously fire at more than one
target while continuing to manoeuvre. Compared with the Vietnam-era
AIM-7 Sparrow, the AIM-120 stretched the “no-escape zone” to dozens
of miles.

Its longevity belies the missile’s extensive evolution. The exterior profile
of the AIM-120D remains almost identical to the original AIM-120A,
except that a version of the preceding AIM-120C introduced clipped
fins to accommodate the cramped interior of the F-22 weapons bay.

Underneath the surface, however, the AIM-120 has been transformed

since the early 1990s with improved sensors, new electronics and a
more powerful propulsion system.

Most importantly, the AMRAAM is now equipped with two weapons. It

always had a 23kg (50lb) fragmentation warhead that detonates in
proximity to or upon contact with an aerial target.

Since the mid-1990s, the AIM-120 has also needed the computing
intelligence to electromagnetically blast through waves of attempts to
jam the missile’s radar.

Shortcomings

In other ways, however, the AIM-120 appears almost anachronistic.

Although the D-variant's range is reportedly several times longer than
the version that entered service 26 years ago, it still falls short of the
most advanced beyond-visual-range air-to-air missiles.

From Europe to Russia to China, the focus of efforts over the past
decade has been to extend the range and manoeuvring power of the
radar-guided air-to-air missile to the limits of the most advanced
sensors, such as the active electronically scanned array radars
proliferating across the world fighter fleets.

The preferred mechanism for extending the range has been

exchanging the missile’s solid-propellant motor with an air-breathing,
throttlable ramjet engine.

The USA has preferred a different philosophy, leading detractors to

argue that its approach is anachronistic. The US military’s supporters
argue that the AMRAAM offers a more holistic approach to defeating
targets, including at shorter ranges. Moreover, ultra-long-range missiles
suffer from the limits of rules of engagement (ROE), which often
prohibit firing at targets at such distances.

“ROE are probably one of the main reasons why really long range can
be rendered pointless, because you may not be allowed to shoot at
those super long ranges where you can’t identify friend or foe or if it’s
after the first few hours of the war,” notes one source.

“The ramjet will give you really long range, but at the shorter range –
certainly inside a normal tactical shot – something with a motor like [an]
AMRAAM will get to a target much quicker than a ramjet.

”Michael Kofman, an analyst for the US Center for Naval Analysis,

points out that the diverging philosophies on missile range derived from
opposing military strategies.

“Russia and China always prepared to fight the United States, and
countries armed by the United States. Thus they continued
development of missiles intended to counter the manner in which the
US fights to achieve air superiority. This means long-range missiles for
taking out [Boeing E-3] AWACS, jamming aircraft and the like,” Kofman
says.
Raytheon

By contrast, the US military became preoccupied with less

sophisticated threats, such as the Taliban in Afghanistan. Moreover, the
USAF also invested in stealth technology, which “meant that we don't
need to shoot from far away, and the range of the AIM-120 is just fine,
given they won’t see us,” Kofman says.

Besides range, the lack of a ramjet motor for the AIM-120 means the
missile has significantly less energy at long ranges. The AMRAAM’s
rocket motor fires for only several seconds after a launch, then glides
to the target using the remaining energy.

Any manoeuvre made in the terminal phase further reduces its energy.
Raytheon counters that the USAF’s focus on anti-jamming technology
solves that problem. By having a clear view to the target, the AIM-120
can avoid the need to manoeuvre.

“Whether or not you can get to the range is one thing, but once you get
to the target you have to be able to see it to kill it,” a source says. “Our
philosophy is reducing the need to make those end-game corrections
by having a better intercept.”

But some analysts are not convinced by the AIM-120’s superiority over
the constantly evolving jamming threats. “I don't know how well it works
because we've thankfully not had a use case, but suffice to say that if
they've spent decades working on how to jam the AIM-120 then they
probably have come up with some answers,” Kofman says.

Although the USA has preferred to take a “holistic” approach, Pentagon

weapons planners have toyed with the idea of an ultra-long-range air-
to-air missile for decades.
In the 1990s, the USAF studied concepts for upgrading the AIM-120
with a variable flow ducted rocket: an air-breathing ramjet with a speed-
controlling throttle.

Weighing options

In more recent years, the US military considered other alternatives to

simply improving the range of its most advanced air-to-air missile. In
the middle of the last decade, the focus of modernisation efforts turned
to expanding functionality.

The USAF launched the dual-role air dominance missile (DRADM)

programme in the hope of combining the abilities of the AIM-120 and
Raytheon's AGM-88 anti-radiation missile.

The US Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency went even

further. The science and technology agency launched the triple target
terminator (T3) programme, with the goal of replacing the AIM-120 and
AGM-88 with the same missile, while adding the capability to destroy
small and stealthy cruise missiles.

By 2012, DRADM and T3 were curiously discontinued, leaving some

observers to speculate that research was continuing in classified
budget accounts.

In mid-2016, the USAF's support for a next-generation missile to

replace the AIM-120 popped back into the public sphere. Then chief of
staff Mark Welsh told journalists attending the Farnborough air show
that the service's fiscal year 2018 budget request could revive the
formal pursuit of a "sixth-generation" missile, but the desired
capabilities remain shrouded in secrecy.

So far, the talk about replacing the AIM-120 is only talk. The missile
that entered development in the mid-1970s still has a lot of work to do.
The USAF has no plans on the books to roll out an “E” version, but that
does not mean that development will stop after the fielding in 2015 of
the AIM-120D.

The military’s operational testers judged that missile to be effective on

entry into service, but improvements are still required. A first software
improvement programme (SIP 1) is now being fielded, while SIP 2 –
featuring undisclosed improvements to the missile’s electronics – will
follow shortly into service.

Beyond SIP 2, Raytheon is developing a new baseline for the

processors and circuit cards within the missile. When the form, fit and
function replacement is ready to be introduced in a couple of years, it
will give the AIM-120’s software developers a more powerful platform
on which to develop new techniques and applications.

“You can imagine using this year’s materials instead of five-years-ago

materials there will be latent capability that we’ll be able to take
advantage of through software as we continue to develop,” an industry
source notes.